While the BJP has long projected its aim of a “Congress-mukt Bharat”, the party has also been on a political project to curtail the influence of regional parties. If many of these parties stood in the way of the BJP breaching frontiers that have eluded it, challenging its dominance, it is also an ideological battle, with regional forces, in the party’s view, undermining national unity.

The BJP is significantly closer to realising this objective after the rout of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the recent West Bengal elections. While the TMC faces a big challenge recovering from it, the polls also dealt a blow to another Opposition titan, the DMK, while the Left – reduced to a regional force after successive poll defeats – is now without power anywhere.

Their overthrow from positions of dominance follows the weakening of the RJD and BRS in, respectively, Bihar and Telangana. Even the JD(U) is now a pale shadow of what it was, clinging to the BJP in Bihar. Another regional force, the TDP, is happy being in the NDA fold, as are small parties in the Northeast. The Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference is in power in Jammu and Kashmir, but knows better than to offend the Centre, while the BJD is struggling to keep its house together in Odisha.

In Maharashtra, the BJP has successfully chipped away at both the Shiv Sena and NCP, with splits leaving them dependent on the bigger partner. The BSP is little more than a cipher now, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) did get a bump in the 2024 Lok Sobha polls but has a mountain to climb in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. After a debilitating split, the Aam Aadmi Party has a similar uphill task in Punjab next year, even as the Akali Dal has failed to stem its slide.

Emphasising on ‘One Nation’, the BJP’s top leaders in their informal interactions always express their disapproval at what they term “divisive regionalism”, saying regional parties tend to prioritise local interests, and caste-based and dynastic politics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly targeted the RJD, DMK, SP and BRS, apart from the Congress, asking voters whether they want “the welfare of sons and daughters” by these parties, or vote for an organisation-first party like the BJP.

Over the next months, with the state Assembly results getting reflected in Rajya Sabha arithmetics, the Left parties, DMK and TMC are set to lose further influence, with their voices diminished in Parliament.

As the Congress’s footprint shrunk nationally in the past 11 years of the Modi-Shah-led BJP’s rise, it is these powerful regional and smaller parties that had been the BJP’s most strident opponents, projecting the fight as defence of federal structure to that of identities. The share of resources to states decided by the Finance Commission, the GST framework, the role of governors, the use of Central agencies, all helped them mount the charge that the Centre was concentrating power under the NDA government.

Recently, southern states ruled by the Congress and regional parties tapped into fears that the proposed delimitation exercise would further limit their influence in a politics dominated by the North.

During the Budget Session of Parliament, regional parties hand in hand with the Congress moved a no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accusing him of being partisan. The Opposition has also moved a motion seeking removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, for a second time, for alleged “proven misbehaviour” and partisan conduct.

These gestures were more about putting moral pressure than any numerical threat. After the poll losses, that moral plank is also dented.